FOI 1007-2023 / Nov 2023 / Cannabis farms
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-1007-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 2nd November 2023 as follows:
I would like to know the number of so-called cannabis farms discovered in your force area since 01/01/13 until present.
The data could be provided via spreadsheet and categorised by year of discovery. Also appreciated would be your definition of cannabis farm.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that information requested is not centrally recorded and is not available in a readily retrievable format. There is no specific identifier for cannabis farms and, in order to attempt to provide a response to your request, it would be necessary to review the wider case papers and circumstances associated with each and every offence of ‘production or being concerned in production of a controlled drug – cannabis’ (offence code 92.21). Due to changes in systems, it is not possible to retrieve information annually prior to 2018; therefore, searches were undertaken for all such offences recorded between 1st January 2018 and 14th November 2023, which returned 466 records. It is estimated that it would take 10 minutes per offence (minimum), which would equate to in excess of 77 hours of work. Therefore, such searches would exceed the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with S12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in relation to your request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance; however, due to the volume of information concerned, I am unable to suggest a way to pare down your request into one which could be provided within the fees limit unless you were to reduce the time period to, say, one year only.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB